Losing Game

Chapter 7 - What Are Friends For

Anytime food is involved, Saint is the first person in line or waiting to be served at a table. In this case he's happily bouncing up and down in his seat as Billy approaches him with their food. It's the middle of the day, and the canteen is starting to get full with students. Today it's just the two of them eating together since Orn is still in class and Opp left after his last one. While Billy sets all the food out on the table, he can hear the chanting of "food, food, food" from Saint.

"Who cooked today? Your mom or sisters?" he asked

"My sisters wish they could cook like this. The minute mom saw them trying to cook, she took over. Here, she made the panang curry for you."

"And the noodles? Where my extra rice?"

"The noodles are for me and your rice is right there." Saint looked at Billy and pouted.

Halfway through eating, Billy put down his spoon and fork to clear his throat. During one of his classes with Orn, she brought up the fact that Saint had stayed at the penthouse on Sunday. The last time all of them where there was before -

He looked down when he heard snickering coming from the person beside him and saw Saint slowly stealing his noodles.

"Oh you seemed busy thinking...and the noodles were just sitting there...looking lonely"

"Everything okay with you? It's just Orn brought up that you stayed at the penthouse during class today and...you know it has sorta been a long time since.."

"I'm doing okay." Saint cut him off. "I was tired after the party and it was closer than my actual apartment."

He knew he wouldn't get any more information out of him. Sometimes you just have to settle for what is given to you. Saint then changed the subject to talk about Billy's sisters. He joked on when he should expect to see another engagement party invitation in the mail. So far he's been invited to five and one of Billy's sisters could make it six. This caused Billy to let out a groan and say over his dad's dead body.

"The man tries to marry me off to someone I didn't know, but doesn't look in P'Sammy's twenty five year old direction. Thank god for my mom that day"

"He would rather marry off one of the twins before his favorite."

"Mhmm, they're all his favorite."

Sibling rivalry is what Mild and Orn have. Their three year age gap allows them to fight for who is the favorite in the family. This is something Billy always loses at. He is the only one in their friend group to have sisters, let alone three older ones. The favorites in his family were determined before he was even born. His mom doesn't understand why her husband doesn't favor their son since he always wanted one. People tend to say it's because he got used to having daughters. This is one of the reasons why Saint and him are close. They both are sons who tend to not be thought about.

Once they finished eating their food, Saint excused himself to the restroom leaving Billy at the table to clean up and wait for him.

Smug. That is how Zee would describe his two friends' faces. All three boys may be walking towards the international school but it is Tommy and Max who have their heads held higher than Zee. He is walking behind them as they talk. He knew they were going to go look for Saint today and now that it was actually happening, he can't help but be nervous again. He cancels out whatever they are discussing to try and think of what to talk about with Saint. Simple questions would be good right?

"Do you think he's overthinking this?" Tommy asks Max. He looks back to see Zee trailing behind them and yells for him to catch up.

"Definitely. It's not like we're going to lock them in a room and force them to talk. A casual bump in is what we are trying to achieve here."